


What's a Sham? Our Childhood.

by ali_kitkat



Series: Childhood Friends AU - Assassin Children [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Don't Like Don't Read, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22018750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ali_kitkat/pseuds/ali_kitkat
Summary: Marinette grew up with Damian in the League, so of course she would recognize him when she saw him eight years later. Not to mention that he was her betrothed. A class trip reunites Marinette and Damian, secrets are revealed and chaos ensues.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne
Series: Childhood Friends AU - Assassin Children [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591645
Comments: 36
Kudos: 637





	1. Reunions, They Suck

It had been years since he’d seen Marinette, the last time had been after they sparred before Slade’s attack. He’d been angry at her after that because Sabine, her mother, had helped Slade in his attack, he understood after siding with his father that Marinette hadn’t taken part in the attack. She had only wanted to get out from her mother’s thumb, and she used the chaos to escape with the miracle box, at least that’s what he hoped. He was disappointed when he realized that he may never see her again, but there she stood small and unassuming as always. The look she wore was one of disbelief, she was just as shocked to see him here as he was her.  
  
He approached her as she waved off two blondes, a boy with green eyes and a girl with icy blues who glared at him as they passed him. They had stopped moving, just standing in front of each other. She had raised her hand to cup his cheek, and he couldn’t stop himself from leaning into her hand. His arms had slipped around her waist pulling her close to him, he could feel her grab fistfuls of his shirt.  
  
“Damian.” She whispered in disbelief, her voice cracking on the last syllable. He couldn’t fault her; he knew if he spoke his voice would’ve cracked as well. “I thought you would still be with Talia.”  
  
“After Slade’s attack she dropped me off to live with my father and I did some growing, surprisingly some of your words stuck with me: I’m a means to an end.” He replied, his voice soft as he tightened his hold on her. She sank into his embrace. “I thought I’d never see you again. That you might’ve been killed in the attack or Sabine or Talia might’ve gotten to you.”  
  
A silence had taken over between them, they stayed in each other’s arms until someone cleared their throat; alerting them to their presence. Marinette had ripped herself from his arms, putting herself on the defense. Bracing himself, he started to turn around, dread settled in his gut. He only knew four people who were arrogant enough to speak to him in public. There in front of him was Drake, the worst of his brother’s in his honest opinion.  
  
“Damian, care to introduce me to your friend?” Drake teased, raising an eyebrow in question. It took everything to control himself not to wipe the floor with his face.  
  
“If you _must_ know Drake, she’s an old friend.” He replied tersely, barely holding in a groan.  
  
“Still as charismatic as ever Dove. Not going to introduce me, I thought we were past this Dames?” She teased from behind him. “You can’t keep me all to yourself.”  
  
This time he did let out a groan of annoyance as Marinette started to laugh and confusion started to settle in on Drake. Looking up he sees the rest of his family turn the corner and braces himself for the onslaught of questions.  
  
“Father.” He greeted as the rest started to look a little concerned at Drake’s frozen expression. “This is my friend —"  
  
“Marinette and it’s lovely to finally meet Damian’s dad.” Marinette said smiling, cutting him off while holding out a hand to his father.  
  
“It’s nice to meet you too Marinette. Damian has never mentioned any friends visiting.” Bruce spoke, accepting her hand. His family knew that he didn’t do _friends_, so one appearing in Wayne Enterprises was worrisome to say the least. He could see the uneasiness in the way each of them carried themselves, he knew all their tells and each of them were very telling at the moment.  
  
“It wasn’t planned, my class is here for a trip and seeing Damian was an unexpected surprise, a pleasant one though.” She answered, cocking an eyebrow in his direction.  
“That reminds me Dami, are you going to introduce me to the rest of them? I wasn’t kidding when I said I thought you were over your jealousy.”  
  
“I’m not jealous.” He mumbled, eliciting a laugh from her and surprised looks from his family. “This is my family habibiti. You’ve met my father, Bruce Wayne; these are my older brothers, the one I called Drake is Timothy Drake the second youngest. Right above me in age. The one with the white streak in his hair is second eldest, Jason Todd.”  
  
Her eyes widened at the name drop and it had taken him a minute before he realized why, she knew of Talia’s pet project with Jason and she had visited him once with him before she decided she couldn’t bear to see the man in pain. “Lastly is the eldest Richard Grayson, who prefers to go by Dick. Though we don’t quite understand why he would use a name that doubles as an insult and an innuendo.”  
  
She laughed at his expense, the sighs he let out always entertained her.  
  
“Well it’s lovely to meet you all as well. Even if he is a stick in the mud.” She charmed, jerking her thumb in his direction.  
  
“Don’t do that.”  
  
“Do what?” She asked, a look of confusion spread across her face before she masked her emotions.  
  
“That thing where you use the fake smile and the charm. Sabine isn’t here to tell you to do that, and neither are any other Leaguers.” He answered grabbing her hand in his. His family had tensed up at his mention of the League, it wasn’t meant to reassure any of them but Marinette. He wanted her to know she could talk about the League to him, that he wasn’t angry at her. “They know about the Shadows, it’s alright to speak about what happened if you want to.”  
  
“Goddamn it Dove. I hate when you do that. Always breaking down my walls like that, never could hide anything from you. Stupid fiancé.” She muttered, gripping his hand tightly before using her other to wipe tears off her face and letting out a wet, weak laugh.  
  
He could hear inhales of breath from each member of his family in front of him. She turned to stare at him before looking at his family. Connecting the dots, the shocked looks they were sharing with each other and his avoidance of her gaze she stormed off.  
  
“So,” Grayson started, staring at him in mild amusement and horror. “Do you want to explain to us who she is or is the assumption of your fiancé just a good blanket term. We know why she stormed off; you didn’t tell us about her, and she’s pissed.”  
  
“Not particularly but if I don’t, she may kill me. She’s certainly capable of it. The woman you met is my betrothed Marinette Cheng, though honestly I’m not certain if she still is.” He groaned, dropping his face into his hands, there was a high possibility of Marinette maiming him. “I never mentioned her because I was unsure if she survived Slade’s attack. Sabine Cheng, Marinette’s mother, bartered her way into Ra’s good graces. Using her daughter and what I think was called the miracle box. She wanted to be at the top and she offered her daughter as a bride and the box as a dowry gift.”  
  
He scanned the looks they were all wearing, Todd was staring off in the direction Marinette stormed off in looking confused. Drake and Grayson were sharing amused looks and his father was visibly shocked.  
  
“Ra’s accepted Sabine’s offer of joining the two of us, Talia was against it obviously. We spent four years training together and learning about each other. I guess she got tired of waiting and helped Slade in his attack, which as you know scattered members of the League. Marinette vanished during the fight; I wasn’t sure if she played a part in it at first but after time passed and Talia hadn’t mentioned her, I assumed she was either dead or in hiding. I honestly thought Sabine might’ve found her and killed her. That since I wasn’t part of the League that she might’ve killed her out of spite or something.” He spat.  
  
“So how do you know she’s not here on behalf of her mother? That she’s not here to use you?” Drake asked.  
  
“I don’t think I would help the woman who was going to sell me like cattle _Drake_.” Marinette snapped, staring at Drake, startling him. They hadn’t realized she returned to the group.__  
  
“After we were told to kill each other, we sparred. Marinette had lost and she confided in me that she realized that she didn’t mean anything to Sabine. That she knew her mother, and I use that term loosely, only viewed her as a means to an end.”  
  
“You only won that fight because I didn’t know how to cope with the fact that I was supposed to kill the boy I had grown to love.” Marinette said. “That is the only reason you won that night and you know it, but yes after he won, I collapsed on the ground and I told him that Sabine never loved me. That I was a means to an end for her.”  
  
He stared at her, she loved him.____


	2. Explanations and Arguments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is pretty dialogue heavy, so apologies there. but i hope y'all enjoy!!! also not beta read so if there's anything wrong, i don't really care but leave a comment and i'll fix it later.

_ She loved him. _

How was he supposed to process that? That was something for him to sort out, later. Especially with the glee in his brothers’ eyes. Except that statement kept replaying over and over in his mind; he couldn’t think of anything else but her words.

** _She loved him._ **

He knew he had feelings for her, but he never opened that box when he was with the League or after he came to live with his father.

With the League, he never opened it because it was a weakness, and weaknesses were exploitable. He was close with her when they sparred but any other time, they acted indifferent. Their sparring matches were never supervised. It was odd that they weren’t, but they never thought much of it. They agreed to never speak to each other unless their guardians commanded them to.

The only times Marinette had ever shown emotion was when they sparred. The first time she had shown any emotion other than concentration in a fight was when he brushed off her feelings of Sabine’s words about her father, she had lost control during the fight and had beaten him into a corner until he apologized for his impudence. The second was after they were each told to kill the other.

While living with his father he never thought about her because he wasn’t sure if she was alive. He was hopeful about it, but the doubt he had made him more cynical on the days he thought of her. His brothers learned to avoid him on those days, it had taken them time to realize that. Especially on the anniversary of Slade’s attack.

He’d drawn her once, and immediately stashed the portrait away. He couldn’t bear to look at it, there were a cacophony of emotions it elicited, and he didn’t know how to handle them. Jason had found it once and asked about the girl. He didn’t have the courage to talk about who Marinette was to him. All he did was rip the portrait from the offending hands and burn it.

He was pulled from his thoughts when someone flicked him on the forehead. When he glanced around, his brothers were all pointing at Marinette. Which was rather pointless as her expression gave her away, it was one of perfectly schooled innocence. It never fooled him though.

He didn’t bother glaring at her, she would’ve been unphased after spending four years ignoring it and sending the same glare back. He sighed exasperatedly so, which prompted muffled laughter from his brothers. Grayson, the closest to him earned a jab to the ribs for his suggestive eyebrows. He himself received a sigh of disappointment from his father and another flick on the forehead from Marinette.

“Marinette.” He said, voice low and glaring at her. This time to send a warning.

“Marion, actually.” She replied.

“What?”

“My name is Marion Agreste, best not to get confused when my class is around.” She explained. “I can easily say you’re an old friend who knows me by my nickname Mari, but my class knows me as Marion or as the Ice Princess.”

There was a snort from behind them. They all turned to see the two blondes from before with amused expressions on their faces.

“Mari, you’re just full of surprises.” The boy spoke.

“Of course, she is Adri.” The girl replied, slinging an arm over his shoulders. “She’s magic or have you forgotten how she saved your ass from the harpy?”

“Chloe don’t be mean to him. You know he can’t help it. The hairspray from all those photoshoots always go to his head, killing his brain cells in the process.”

The boy, Adrien Agreste he recognized, was gaping; opening and closing his mouth trying to think of a response to the insult Marinette had thrown at him. His brothers weren’t even trying to hide their laughter. Adrien had regained his bearings and shrugged Chloe’s arm off of him and scowled.

Chloe had rested her hand dramatically on her heart. “Of course, it’s just made worse by the class’s incessant need to pull him away from his sister. You’re his Jiminy Cricket after all.”

“Okay, one this is uncalled for, how dare the both of you gang up on me like this. Two, are you going to introduce us to your  _ friend _ Mari?” Agreste badgered. Mari glared at him and flipped him the bird.

“Oh _ , dearest brother of mine _ , go fuck yourself.” She sassed. “If you must know, he’s an old friend.” She repeated his words from earlier making him and Drake laugh. Agreste looked quite affronted at her response. Jason snorted as his Father muttered something about children that he didn’t quite catch.

“Wait, before you maim your brother. How did you end up with the Agrestes and in Gotham of all cities?” He asked, gesturing to her friend and brother. “How much do they know? About you and where you came from?”

His father cleared his throat and glanced around. “How about you move this conversation from a public place to a conference room, this isn’t something I’d like to have spread around. I’m certain photos have already been taken of us, none of us are exactly low profile.”

Nodding their heads in agreement they headed to one of the secure conference rooms on the ground floor.

“Adrien and Chloe know who I am. You remember Slade’s attack fairly well I’m assuming. Sabine helped him, I’m sure you already knew that.” She started, her eyes hardened, and she glared at a spot on the wall. “Sabine never bothered to check on me during the attack. Not to mention since Ra’s loyalists were going to be instantly killed, I didn’t know whether or not I was safe. I went with the assumption Sabine was probably going to kill me herself.”

Mari had refused to sit; Agreste and Chloe had settled next to each other in seats closest to her. He refused to sit as well, standing beside her too. Glancing around he could see that Dick was sitting on the edge of the table with Bruce and Tim sitting in chairs across from the blondes, and Jason leaning against the wall behind them, watching the scene.

“You believe she would’ve killed you?” Agreste asked in disbelief. From a glance he could see the boy was horrified and clutching onto his friend’s hand.

“She killed her grandfather, the last Guardian before her, who had the box. What would stop her from killing her own daughter?” She let out a bitter laugh. “She knew that I would’ve killed for Damian, she instilled that in me herself. I ran partly to try and find you, but Talia’s men found me first and since it was revealed that Sabine helped Slade in his coup, I was to be killed. Especially since she never liked me either.”

She gave him a wry look and lifted her bangs showing off a scar. “I defended myself admirably, our training together paid off, but five against one isn’t quite even odds. The room for the miracle box was nearby. I entered, since I couldn’t find you and I decided my death wasn’t going to be decided by people who didn’t care about me. I used what I had to escape.”

“I don’t blame you for that, you’re right. Talia would’ve killed you. I don’t know how I would have responded, especially since she told me you helped Sabine in the coup.” He said. Reaching out, he grabbed her hand and gave it a small squeeze. “I had a lot of mixed feelings. I knew you wouldn’t have done that, but the love I had for Talia at that time was at war with my feelings for you.”

“Thank you, Damian.” She paused for a moment and squeezed his hand in return. “Well, I ended up in Paris after using one of the miraculous. I was clutching the box, wandering around I stumbled upon a photoshoot in a park. Emilie Agreste saw me first and she was livid. She wanted to know what happened and why I looked like I came out of a war zone, I wasn’t a pretty sight. I lied, obviously, and said I didn’t remember much except that my mother was the cause of it and that I didn’t know anything else, not exactly a lie.”

This time instead of another bitter laugh, she sighed. It was one of exhaustion and acceptance. “She walked up to Gabriel and told him what I said, verbatim, and that was that. They called contacts, falsified a few documents and here I stand as Marion Agreste. A child they found with severe PTSD and amnesia who doesn’t remember her childhood. Emilie and Gabriel don’t know who I am exactly, but they do know that I lied to them, they understood why I did.”

“Now as to how I’m here in Gotham actually has to do with the fact that Adrien wanted to go to school and Chloe wanted him to as well.” She snickered. “Chloe wanted Adrien to go to school and tried to bargain with Gabriel. If Adrien wanted to go to public school so badly, I had to attend with him. Emilie didn’t want to keep Adrien in the house as he really didn’t have the most social upbringing. His social cues are shit.”

“They are not!” Agreste defended. Both Mari and Chloe gave him a knowing look and raised an eyebrow in question.

“Adrien sweetie, when I first met Mari you thought we should just get along because we were both girls.” Chloe replied, eliciting varying laughs of amusement.

“And when Chloe told us about Lila you asked what was so bad about a stretched truth.” Mari chimed in. “Then Lila mentioned she was dating you and you replied that you were gay. Now when Lila tried to cozy up to you when we started public school you  _ shouted _ you were gay.”

Agreste winced looking thoroughly cowed. “Alright you’ve made your point, please stop calling me out like this.”

“Wait, why did you have to attend with him?”

Agreste started to laugh while Chloe smirked at Mari. She had groaned and refused to look at anyone else in the room.

“In my defense, I thought someone was going to hurt Adrien.” She started. “It was a little bit after Emilie and Gabriel had gotten the legal things sorted out. I went with them to Adrien’s next photoshoot in the park. While Adrien was taking a break, someone came up to him and dragged him off for a selfie. Adrien looked startled and –”

“Her solution was to remove their arm from my body and twist it so far behind their back it was dislocated. Father decided that Mari was the best bodyguard for me because she’s tiny and unassuming.” Agreste interrupted, having finally gained some composure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also if you don't like don't read. the standard rule of fanfic. as someone else said, if dc can get away with churning out so many comics and call all of them canon i can make damian be soft for one person.

**Author's Note:**

> All of my works are cross posted on my tumblr @ali-kitkat and feel free to scream in the comments below!


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